Little-known fact: Israel has more film schools per capita than any other country.
That’s the word from Lexi Leban, executive director of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, who was in Israel last fall on a trip sponsored by the Israeli Consulate. While there, she and SFJFF program director Jay Rosenblatt took in the Haifa Film Festival, and met with “film industry people,” Leban said. And among the places they visited was Sapir College, home of the Sapir College Film and Television School.
Located near Sderot in the northern Negev, Sapir’s film school doesn’t have the name recognition or panache of Tel Aviv University’s film and TV school, but perhaps soon will.
“We were so impressed with the whole department,” said Leban, who met with Sapir film school staff and toured the facility.
A series of short films by Sapir students will run continuously from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, across the street from Yerba Buena Gardens, in conjunction with Israel in the Gardens. The SFJFF is co-presenting the film loop.
Sapir “has a very diverse population of students — Bedouins, Arab Israelis, Sephardic Jews,” Leban said, adding that much of their work focuses on “personal filmmaking and identity.” The college, with approximately 8,000 students, is equipped with shelters where those on campus can take refuge during the missile attacks from Gaza that have plagued the region.
Sapir’s film and television school also coordinates the Israeli film showcase, Cinema South Festival, which “has gotten a lot of recognition,” Leban said. “They show cutting-edge, new, challenging work.”
Donny Inbar, associate director of arts and culture at the Israel Center in San Francisco, said the eight short films to be shown in the loop include live action and animation films “telling intriguing multicultural stories about childhood, adolescence, aliyah to Israel, loneliness, circus life, colorful and shattered dreams.”